Anger at pro-life Olympic leaflet put through Brighton doors

A campaign by pro-life campaigners linking abortion and the Olympics has been criticised as “tasteless” and “desperate”.

About 500 leaflets have been posted through the doors of homes in Brighton by supporters of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) which uses Olympic imagery as part of its antiabortion message.

Pro-choice campaigners have criticised the campaign and are considering reporting the incident to Sussex Police and Olympic organisers LOCOG.

Members of the society defended the leaflets and likened them to protesting against China’s human rights abuses during the last Olympics.

The campaign pictures a baby staring at an Olympic medal and claims that in the time it took the Olympic torch relay to be completed, 40,000 unwanted pregnancies were terminated in Britain.

The leaflet has been distributed to residents living near to the Wistons clinic in Chatsworth Road, Brighton.

Anti-abortion campaign groups SPUC and Abort 67 hold regular vigils outside the clinic which pro-choice campaigners argue amounts to harassment of visitors.

Carolynne Henshaw, of Brighton Pro Choice, said: “This is particularly tasteless and irrelevant.We know Sussex Police can be robust on protests when they wantto be but they choose not to on this protest.”

SPUC general secretary Paul Tully said the Games were not “immune” to the environment they were operating in.

He added: “We are not criticising the Olympics, we’re just trying to draw people’s attention to a subject that merits public concern. We were very careful when drawing up the leafletthat we didn’t commit any improprieties.”

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said the force supported the right to protest even if the cause was “unpopular with many”.

She added: “There have been occasions when images used either at protests or in the form of leaflets have been disturbing.

“If these are threatening, abusive or insulting and are likely to cause harassment, alarmor distress then offenders will be prosecuted.”

Comments(23)

Telscombe Cliffy says...
11:50am Sun 5 Aug 12

To the right of this article is a traffic report about Petworth which says traffic flowing freely. Why is this? surely it is flowing freely everywhere if there are no traffic reports/incidents? If it is flowing freely everywhere why snigle out Petworth?

Telscombe Cliffy says...
11:51am Sun 5 Aug 12

*single*

Number Six says...
12:09pm Sun 5 Aug 12

So how come that if Stavros advertises his "olympic sized all day breakfast" then the sponsorship politburo want to lock him up without trial (so to speak) but this lot can use the Olympic rings with impunity.

JoeBlow says...
1:24pm Sun 5 Aug 12

Number Six wrote:
So how come that if Stavros advertises his "olympic sized all day breakfast" then the sponsorship politburo want to lock him up without trial (so to speak) but this lot can use the Olympic rings with impunity.
So where does it say they used the rings?

Telscombe Cliffy says...
1:39pm Sun 5 Aug 12

JoeBlow wrote:
Number Six wrote:
So how come that if Stavros advertises his "olympic sized all day breakfast" then the sponsorship politburo want to lock him up without trial (so to speak) but this lot can use the Olympic rings with impunity.
So where does it say they used the rings?
That would be Onion rings arranged illegally on the plate.

chrisinbrighton says...
2:04pm Sun 5 Aug 12

argus it's alarm or not alarmor

also I think it should have been the olympics thats aborted what a waste of millions when people home and abroad are starving

Enema of the peephole says...
2:25pm Sun 5 Aug 12

"George Carlin: Pro Life, Abortion, and The Sanctity Of Life" seemed fascinating on Youtube.

Old Ale Man says...
6:35pm Sun 5 Aug 12

Telscombe Cliffy wrote:
*single*
Snigle, brings back a memory an a smile or 3, Cliffy.
I used too do that as a kid with my old granddad in the river at Southease.

Maxwell's Ghost says...
7:33pm Sun 5 Aug 12

I thought they were advertising special Olympic deals for abortions with marathon surgery sessions.
They are nuts.

AmboGuy says...
8:30pm Sun 5 Aug 12

These pro life self righteous morons shouldn't even be given this much publicity. They should be treated with the contempt they deserve and ignored.

Morpheus says...
8:31pm Sun 5 Aug 12

It is perhaps also relevant to think of the number of women around the world who have died during childbirth because of inadequate health care duing the same period. But never mind that, it suits politicians to boast that the Olympics is bringing the countries of the world together in a spirit of hope. Not for the women and children who have died during the games.

puddingandpi says...
9:22pm Sun 5 Aug 12

I do hope they'll be prosecuted for copyright infringement offences.

tonybee says...
1:16am Mon 6 Aug 12

Good God ! the Lunatic Greens and
Smash EDO have mated in the night
& spat out this latest evil scum !
Good to see the police displaying their usual high standards of total ineptitude

JoeBlow says...
2:57am Mon 6 Aug 12

AmboGuy wrote:
These pro life self righteous morons shouldn't even be given this much publicity. They should be treated with the contempt they deserve and ignored.
What right do you have to call them "self righteous morons"? It sounds to me like you are the most self-righteous one on this page. These people are just campaigning against something they disagree with, and that's a fundamental human right.

Nathan_Adler says...
9:09am Mon 6 Aug 12

Whoever decided this, should have aborted the decision.

In fact their mothers should have aborted them!!

Point says...
11:11am Mon 6 Aug 12

We recieved one of the leaflets throught he door after reading it we was genuinely shocked by the statistics. We get 100's of pieces of mail trying to sell us this and that and yet we get one little leaflet that incidently woke me up to something I had hardly ever thought about and we get this kind of reaction?

elainepkils says...
11:37am Mon 6 Aug 12

Here they go again trying to impose their ancient beliefs on others. Yes George Carlin had it right. Perhaps these pople will go and visit women who have decided to keep their babies through religious dogma who have childrenborn with defects. No they are too busy putting leaflets in doors uninvited.
Most religions are against womens rights-dont let them win. Remember Mrs Pankhurst geting us the rights to vote.

dhamallamafarmer says...
11:47am Mon 6 Aug 12

Point wrote:
We recieved one of the leaflets throught he door after reading it we was genuinely shocked by the statistics. We get 100's of pieces of mail trying to sell us this and that and yet we get one little leaflet that incidently woke me up to something I had hardly ever thought about and we get this kind of reaction?
I hope you took what they had to say with more than a pinch of salt. It's been known for people with an axe to grind to invent figures to support their propositions. Nadine Dorres, the anti choice MP for example freely admits to completely inventing 'statistics' to support her arguments.

elainepkils says...
12:46pm Mon 6 Aug 12

Here they go again trying to impose their ancient beliefs on others. Yes George Carlin had it right. Perhaps these pople will go and visit women who have decided to keep their babies through religious dogma who have childrenborn with defects. No they are too busy putting leaflets in doors uninvited.
Most religions are against womens rights-dont let them win. Remember Mrs Pankhurst geting us the rights to vote.

D360 says...
4:13pm Mon 6 Aug 12

tonybee wrote:
Good God ! the Lunatic Greens and
Smash EDO have mated in the night
& spat out this latest evil scum !
Good to see the police displaying their usual high standards of total ineptitude
What has this got to do with the Police?

Beethoven says...
3:10pm Tue 7 Aug 12

Self righteous morons?

Anti abortion need have nothing to do with religion, just a respect for the unborn.....If their figures are correct, it is a terrible thought that 40,000 U K lives were snuffed out in that short time

AmboGuy says...
4:22pm Tue 7 Aug 12

Beethoven wrote:
Self righteous morons?

Anti abortion need have nothing to do with religion, just a respect for the unborn.....If their figures are correct, it is a terrible thought that 40,000 U K lives were snuffed out in that short time
Errrrm self righteous doesn't mean religious though.

Sue De Nimes says...
6:18pm Tue 14 Aug 12

JoeBlow wrote:
AmboGuy wrote:
These pro life self righteous morons shouldn't even be given this much publicity. They should be treated with the contempt they deserve and ignored.
What right do you have to call them "self righteous morons"? It sounds to me like you are the most self-righteous one on this page. These people are just campaigning against something they disagree with, and that's a fundamental human right.
If people have the right to protest then that means EVERYONE has the right to protest - whether you agree with them or not.

It is funny how those people who paint themselves as "Liberal" often want to oppress those they dislike.

The likes of SPUC are entitled to protest just as much as the unions or those who have protested against the war in Iraq.

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